Comments on: More on the New Normal

By: Midd Parent

Midd Parent — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:53:34 +0000

1.7 this year is probably 2 million next year. Financial Aid at need blind schools who also have a policy of meeting fully demonstrated need is a moving target – as you point out. Hard to see how a contingency fund that’s going to be needed every year is really “contingent.”

This said.. it will be interesting to see how the budget allocation process unfolds over the next several years if not the decade. While mandatory travel abroad is an interesting (albeit controversial) concept, I’d be interested to know what other kinds of ideas were presented at this retreat as well.

By: Timothy Spears

Timothy Spears — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:44:33 +0000

We are fortunate in that more than 7000 students applied to Middlebury last years, so we do not have problems enrolling or “landing” a class. But we are need blind, which has implications for our financial aid budget. On that front, we expect to exceed our projected budget by $1.7 million in fiscal year 2010 because more students than usual qualified for financial aid. We planned for this by setting aside contingency funds, which we knew we would have to use.

By: Midd Parent

Midd Parent — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:26:18 +0000

Speaking directly to my earlier point:

“Moody’s expects that of the 320 private colleges it rates, the proportion that will report declines in net-tuition revenue this academic year will be the highest since the late 1980s, when colleges used student aid to keep up enrollments as the numbers of high-school graduates dipped.

In the Chronicle survey, 85 percent of respondents said they had met or exceeded their enrollment targets for the fall, but among those, 15 percent fell below their projections for net-tuition revenue. In other words, they got their class, but they spent more than they expected to land it.”

Where did Midd land this fall?